This invention relates generally to ovens and, more particularly, to ovens with a bake element positioned inside an oven chamber.
Bake ovens conventionally include a bake element positioned in the lower portion of an oven chamber, typically just above the oven chamber floor, to generate heat inside the oven chamber. Often, however, during use of such ovens, food, and cooking juices are spilled or splattered inside the oven chamber, ultimately coating the bake element and the chamber floor with greasy cooking byproducts and residue. Thus, it is periodically necessary to clean the oven chamber floor. The proximity of the bake element and the oven chamber floor, however, complicates this task and greatly increases the required time to complete it.
To facilitate cleaning of an oven chamber floor, bake elements have been placed underneath the oven chamber floor. Thus, a smooth oven chamber floor results which is much easier to clean while at the same time rendering the oven more aesthetically appealing. Servicing the bake elements of these types of ovens, however, is made more difficult because the bake element is not accessible from the front of the oven. Rather, the oven must be pulled out from a wall to access the bake element in a restricted manner from the rear of the oven.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an oven assembly that allows for easy cleaning of an oven and easy access to the bake element for service and repair.